For updates since the beginning of ISIS/Assad assault on Yarmouk early April here.

On the 25th of April 2015, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari claimed that Yarmouk’s population doesn’t exceed 1000 person following ISIS assault on the camp. While it is impossible for any authority/organization to verify the actual number of residents left in the camp, activists I am in touch with confirmed that they have lists of four to five thousands displaced person in the besieged south. The IDPs are distributed in three areas: Beit Sahem, Yalda and Babilaa. Thus, Yarmouk is still packed with people from all ages and they still urgently need a humanitarian intervention and a political solution.

This gathering comes also as a reaction for rumors about a possible shutdown for Yalda checkpoint, a connecting exist between Yarmouk and Ylada. This worrying news will mean that the relative “free” movement Yarmouk’s residents use to access other besieged areas to receive food assistance might become history. The siege within the siege is becoming tighter. No serious efforts are being seen.

What do those statements aim to achieve? Is it a preparatory phase to give a cover for ground invasion of Yarmouk? The rumors of a potential shutdown of Yalda exist is an indirect threat to the residents of Yarmouk that they will no longer have access to food, unless they leave the camp towards Yalda. The only way to make sure that such plans dont exist is by resuming food distribution again from the northern exist of Yarmouk which lies under the control of the regime. Otherwise, the concern of a large scale military operation against Yarmouk and it’s residents is still there and it is very legitimate.